


A gift

by teeglow



Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Episode: s03e10 We Are the Garrison, Gen, The sense of an ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:29:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28376985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teeglow/pseuds/teeglow
Summary: 'He’s known Aramis for an age now, brothers through thick and thin, and if Aramis deserved anything at all, it was this. It’s Athos’ honour to be able to arrange it.'Athos ruminates on Aramis' happy ending.
Relationships: (mentioned only), Ana de Austria | Anne d'Autriche/Aramis | René d'Herblay, Athos | Comte de la Fère/Sylvie (The Musketeers 2014)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	A gift

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick little baby tag to the finale. The lads discovering fatherhood is my own personal catnip.

It is the greatest gift he could give him, Athos thinks, and it feels right that he should be able to do so. He’s known Aramis for an age now, brothers through thick and thin, and if Aramis deserved anything at all, it was this. It’s Athos’ honour to be able to arrange it. 

He leaves the embers of the old garrison a happier man than when he’d arrived, all those years ago. It is the right time to go, he can feel it clicking into place as he leaves the note in D’Artagnan’s hat, but it doesn’t make it easy. Being a Musketeer - being an _Inseparable_ \- it’s a difficult thing to let go. Athos feels it tearing deep in his heart, even as content as he is. But if this is to be how they part, if the end of their legend is indeed near, then this is how he’d have it. None of them should be alone, and now, it feels, they never will. 

Of all of them, he thinks Aramis feared that the most. It didn’t take an Inseparable to know the high regard Aramis had for family, how much he longed for it with every fibre of his being. The Infantry had been the first to quench that thirst, before the Musketeers, and only once he had joined the latter did he realise the deficiency in the former.

But, though their brotherhood will withstand decades in memory (even centuries, Athos suspected), the solace offered by the Musketeers could only ever be a fleeting, temporary thing for Aramis - a bandage over a wound that couldn’t be stitched. His friend would have been a fool not to know that, and Aramis was certainly no fool. Not in matters such as this. He had known when he handed over baby Henri to Agnes and for a split second. allowed himself to feel that longing. He had known, too, when he watched Porthos consider leaving with Alice. They were all waiting for that thing to take them away from all this. It was only a matter of time.

The only family Aramis had, other than the three of them, he’d been forced to silently disavow. Athos himself had told Aramis to let the Dauphin go, to let all notions of being his father pass, and logically speaking, of course, it had been sound advice. Aramis risked his neck every second he spent at the palace, an axe hovering above all their heads, and there was little any of them could do but will it away, pretend it didn't exist.

But now Athos is to be a father too and he finds his heart has changed beyond measure. It is not so easy to put reason over love, _true love_ , and he marvels that he’s only just opening his eyes to this reality now. It’s not new. He loves Aramis with all his heart and he had put that before duty with barely a second’s thought. How can he have ever told Aramis to do forgo his family when it's clear he’s never been able to himself?

It seems ridiculous that a man in trusted employ of the King should be so dense. Love eclipsed treason every time and Athos _knew_ that all along.

Head over heart, Athos prescribed, and yet perhaps there was room for a little heart in all of this. 

He’d write that to Aramis in time. Though he’s sure he knows. Perhaps better than any of them, really.

Still. It bears repeating. He’ll write. 


End file.
